We keep hearing that Harrison Ford's injury has left the production scrambling. First, the shooting schedule had to be changed. Then, we heard that the film was looking at changing the script and enlarging Oscar Isaacs role to compensate. Disney denied that. And now the latest rumor is that J.J. Abrams asked to push the release date back to May 4, 2016. Latino Review doesn't directly pin Abrams' request to the break (they instead say that Abrams "thinks that his Star Wars should be released in May like all the other Star Wars movies have been."), but it would still make sense, if the break is anywhere near as bad as the rumors have been saying.

The Latino Review article further states that Kathleen Kennedy of Lucasfilm agrees with Abrams, but it's Bob Iger and Disney who are determined to get this film out in December 2015. As always, beware of stories quoting unnamed sources. [Latino Review via Slashfilm)

I really don't like the idea of rewriting the script just to fit a release date. While a December date works fine, for say, the spin off films, I still don't like the idea for the Episode releases. I would be happier to see the release date pushed to May with the current script instead of scrambling to do rewrites to fit a December release.

Well this rumor puts the other developments lately in perspective. If Iger and Abrams are going at it already, it's no wonder they've already lined up a different director for 8 and 9. If Abrams gets his way (because as the director, he could slow it down to the point that it just can't recover) he may force Disney to hold off until 2016.

But with so many teams working on these movies (especially the first stand-alone and Ep 8 ) they can keep their December openings for the franchise going forward. If they left Abrams to do all the sequels, then they'd be locked in to him starting 8 only after he finishes 7, but they have sidestepped that by potentially getting 8 up and running before 7 is completed. A shrewd business move, and one that is lending weight to this new rumor for me.

That means 2 movies in 2016, with the standalone landing only six months after episode 7, further "punishing" Abrams by giving his film the least amount of promotional time. Of course that also punishes the profits for everyone, but there is not much that can be done about that if Abrams is determined to see a summer release.

As for changing the script to work around Ford? Yikes. That doesn't sound like good storytelling.

If there is one filmmaker who is not hiding his excitement for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars Episode VII, it’s Kevin Smith. The Clerks director is currently in the UK touring animated film Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie along with Jason Mewes and his podcast Hollywood Babble-On with Ralph Garman. Before the show last night in London however, Kevin Smith was invited to the set of Star Wars Episode VII, the details of which he spoke about before the Hollywood Babble-On show.

Smith noted that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement so he couldn’t talk any specifics, but he did say that he saw costumes, characters and sets that took him back to his childhood.

“They had a sign at on the stage – I can’t even say which stage – which had the Imperial Starship logo and it said, ‘loose lips sink starships”.

“I’m really excited and you know, people keep saying that I liked the last trilogy and I did. I liked 1, 2 and 3. But I liked them as an adult, when I watched them they didn’t give me the same feeling I had when I was seven watching them for the first time and that’s fine. This movie though… Dude, I cried four times. The seven year old in me came. [J.J] has ******* captured it, man. He has nailed it.”

Due to the non-disclosure agreement, Smith couldn’t say much more but he gave his co-host Ralph Garman a pad with some words to read out which he then nodded to in agreement. When asked, “did you see Stormtroopers?”, Smith nodded his head with the biggest smile on his face.

Smith also confirmed lightsabres and blasters, but that was pretty much a given.

It'll be so nice to see actual guys in actual suits again.

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